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Friday, July 13, 2012

Suicide bomber targets mosque in Nigeria

A suicide bomber has killed five people at the central mosque in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the military has said, the latest attack in a region plagued by Islamist group, Boko Haram.
"Five people have been killed and six others injured in the Maiduguri central mosque suicide bomb attack," military
spokesman Sagir Musa told reporters on Friday.
The attack narrowly missed the deputy governor of Borno state, Zanna Umar Mustapha, and Borno's Shehu (regional
religious leader), Abubakar Umar Garbai El-Kanemi, who were attending Muslim Friday prayers.
"The suicide bomber, who was about 15 years old, was pushed between me and the Shehu before detonating the bomb. Fortunately we both escaped unhurt," Mustapha told reporters.
Boko Haram has killed hundreds of people this year in an insurgency against President Goodluck Jonathan, seeking to carve out an Islamic state in Africa's most populous country and biggest oil producer.

The sect often targets government officials, religious figures and places of worship, usually Christian churches.
Boko Haram claimed responsibility for attacks that killed more than 65 people in volatile central Nigeria last weekend.